Summer Vacation 2009

Dustin and I were able to take a much needed vacation this past August. We began our vacation in Salem, MA. Let me just say, Salem is beautiful! The houses, the coast, and the area in general is amazing! We stayed at a B&B called The Salem Inn. To be honest, the place is overpriced for what you get, but then again, you are staying in historic houses. We stayed in the Curwin house on Essex Street that was built in the 1800's. Unfortunately, it wasn't haunted, but supposedly the main house is! Across the street from our room is a house that was in Disney's Hocus Pocus! This was Allison's house in the beginning of the movie.

On our first day we decided to use the free trolley tickets in our room package and see the sights of Salem. This is one of the beaches around Salem and one of the many lighthouses you can see.

We also had tickets to tour the House of Seven Gables, which is the inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne's story. Actually, the house didn't look at this when Hawthorne wrote it. The owner had the house built to look like this so it would be like the one in Hawthorne's story. The house and gardens around the house are beautiful. We weren't able to take pictures inside, but I was satisfied with the ones outside!

As a surpise for Dustin, I bought two tickets to the Red Sox game in Boston that week. We were able to take a ferry from Salem into Boston and the ride there was amazing. It took about 30 minutes, but we were able to see the coast and towns along the way.

Fenway was interesting to find. We walked around for about an hour and finally found our way! We took some time to do a trolley rid around Boston and get a quick tour. We definitely want to go back to Boston and spend more time later down the road! We had lunch at Cheers, which was delicious! Fenway was packed, but lots of fun. Nothing says baseball like an overpriced hotdog and beer (which Dustin enjoyed)!

The second half of our trip was in DC. Dustin had never been, so we decided to go. Walking around and seeing the memorials is my favorite part of D.C. I could go back every year. Being there during the summer was really hot and crowded, so whenever we go back, we'll definitely try to go in the spring or fall.

We were able to see most of the things we wanted to, but still missed a lot too. I would recommend spending at least a week in D.C. in order to see all that you would want to. There are so many places to go that are free, and worth every minute you can spend there. The museums are great and the memorials are beautiful. The memorials are even more beautiful at night when they are lit up. The metro is easy to use and pretty cheap. We parked our car at the hotel and never used it once. We had a great vacation and were glad to spend time with each other before Dustin's deployment in January.

"Can You Hear Me Now.....No"

Well, Dustin and I decided to switch from Verizon to AT&T this past week. At first, I was a little worried that the new service wouldn't be as good, but so far, it's been better. The only problem I've had with my service is not having a great signal at work, but as far as eveything else goes...AT&T is great. I've had a few people ask how the service was, and I'll keep you posted if anything changes with it. Dustin and I both bought the LG Vue. I wasn't sure if I would like a touch screen phone, but it's not so bad. I just have to get used to it. They had a lot of great phones to choose from, but this was my favorite. The plan we chose was very similar to the one we had with Verizon, but any of our unused minutes will now rollover, which is definitely a plus! Before, we couldn't even pick up a signal at our home, but now we have no problem. So far, I'm definitely satisfied with our decision!

Dabo's Ladies Clinic 2009

This past weekend Babs and I went to the first annual Dabo's Ladies Clinic in Clemson. We went to Bowden's Ladies Clinic last summer and loved it. Instead of being held in the West End Zone, the ladies clinic was in Littlejohn Coliseum. There were about 1,100 women at the clinic this year and the individual groups were larger than last year. The visits to each station were still awesome, and the new facilities look great! I believe all this cost around $80,000,000. That's chump change right?

Dabo did a great job introducing the new coaching staff and getting us ready for the clinic and the upcoming football season. All the coaching staff wore pink clinic shirts in honor of cancer awareness. Real men wear pink...right? Actually, we were all hoping to get pink shirts for the clinic, but of course, we were given orange ones.

After touring the team rooms over in the west end zone, we came back to Littlejohn for lunch and to watch the second annual tiger idol contest. This year Korn played a little guitar and a few players from the kicking team sang "A Whole New World" complete with female vocals :) It was hilarious.

I believe one of my favorite parts of the clinic is touring the locker room and seeing the players' booths. There are several murals on the walls with inspirational messages and quotes. It definitely gives you that game day feeling!

At the end of the day, we all get to have our pictures taken on the hill. Of course you get to run down and walk on the field. I chose to skip running down the hill, because I felt I did a great job walking down without tumbling to the bottom. It's extremely steep for those of you who have never been down it. While everyone else ran down the hill, I decided to get in line for CJ Spiller's autograph. Of course, this also turned into a fight because many of the women don't know how to stand in line! But I won't get into that. I eventually got my autograph and felt satisfied with my day!